Not surprisingly the baseball teams with massive growth rates are the ones that were just getting started a couple of years ago. But nice to see those clubs connecting with more fans.

I did not expect to see the Phillies at the bottom of the list but with all the success they’ve had in the past five years or so helped them build up a large following early on.

Plus the Phillies and Yankees were on Twitter’s old Suggested Users list which gave them a big advantage at the time.

Here are the teams ranked by current total followers:

Twitter followers
4/10/12

Twitter followers
4/5/10

Two-Year
Growth Rate

1

Philadelphia Phillies

682,373

561,223

22%

2

New York Yankees

563,459

272,665

107%

3

San Francisco Giants

239,976

16,742

1333%

4

Boston Red Sox

230,621

10,127

2177%

5

Atlanta Braves

147,060

14,626

905%

6

Texas Rangers

132,593

6,149

2056%

7

St. Louis Cardinals

124,175

3,976

3023%

8

Toronto Blue Jays

110,659

4,775

2217%

9

Chicago Cubs

110,648

4,595

2308%

10

Los Angeles Dodgers

104,760

18,371

470%

11

Detroit Tigers

88,899

11,493

674%

12

New York Mets

82,694

6,916

1096%

13

Cincinnati Reds

81,064

10,910

643%

14

Minnesota Twins

71,632

8,046

790%

15

Milwaukee Brewers

66,756

1,653

3938%

16

Chicago White Sox

53,642

1,524

3420%

17

Tampa Bay Rays

51,987

4,677

1012%

18

Cleveland Indians

50,408

2,360

2036%

19

Kansas City Royals

47,516

7,361

546%

20

Los Angeles Angels

46,512

4,701

889%

21

Seattle Mariners

45,832

6,669

587%

22

Oakland Athletics

40,928

6,365

543%

23

Baltimore Orioles

40,014

3,657

994%

24

Pittsburgh Pirates

39,543

2,636

1400%

25

Colorado Rockies

36,431

1,237

2845%

26

Miami Marlins

35,520

1,824

1847%

27

Arizona Diamondbacks

34,104

2,885

1082%

28

San Diego Padres

34,063

3,996

752%

29

Washington Nationals

31,467

2,165

1353%

30

Houston Astros

29,255

1,336

2090%

I thought the Yankees and Red Sox would be at the top but nice job by the Phillies to be #1 despite the poorest two-year growth rate.

We’ll see if all the attention the new look, new stadium Miami Marlins are getting (both positive and negative) will start pushing their Twitter numbers up.

Right now approximately 30K followers is the bottom of the range. That is still fairly low (hey teams near the bottom, do some more promotion!) but up considerably from the low end of 1.5K two years ago.

The Rangers have nearly twice the growth rate of any team which is not surprising considering they were in the World Series the last two seasons.

The Dodgers have also seen a lot of growth. This might partly be a large market getting more active or perhaps all the attention around the team sale has sparked more fan interest.

Overall the Facebook growth percentages are considerably smaller than Twitter but the teams have attracted much larger fan bases on Facebook. In many cases the 2010 Facebook numbers are still larger than the 2012 Twitter numbers.

Now the MLB team pages ranked by total likes:

Facebook likes
4/10/12

Facebook likes
4/5/10

Two-Year
Growth Rate

1

New York Yankees

5,359,534

1,249,555

329%

2

Boston Red Sox

3,502,176

1,052,128

233%

3

Chicago Cubs

1,583,999

537,492

195%

4

San Francisco Giants

1,373,552

321,164

328%

5

St. Louis Cardinals

1,227,815

305,230

302%

6

Texas Rangers

1,223,799

118,638

932%

7

Philadelphia Phillies

1,179,318

337,405

250%

8

Atlanta Braves

1,095,495

242,171

352%

9

Los Angeles Dodgers

964,330

171,098

464%

10

Detroit Tigers

963,627

248,167

288%

11

Chicago White Sox

854,104

226,825

277%

12

Minnesota Twins

742,815

272,034

173%

13

Milwaukee Brewers

565,989

169,004

235%

14

New York Mets

551,335

181,531

204%

15

Cincinnati Reds

525,261

98,632

433%

16

Cleveland Indians

505,293

147,130

243%

17

Seattle Mariners

476,187

135,240

252%

18

Los Angeles Angels

447,185

98,922

352%

19

Colorado Rockies

446,302

109,960

306%

20

Toronto Blue Jays

406,837

98,513

313%

21

Tampa Bay Rays

406,644

107,636

278%

22

Houston Astros

404,990

125,677

222%

23

San Diego Padres

366,680

77,636

372%

24

Baltimore Orioles

346,308

92,042

276%

25

Pittsburgh Pirates

315,023

68,085

363%

26

Oakland Athletics

305,993

189,187

62%

27

Kansas City Royals

281,070

112,616

150%

28

Miami Marlins

244,331

81,382

200%

29

Arizona Diamondbacks

237,985

63,118

277%

30

Washington Nationals

138,707

42,411

227%

Here the Yankees and Red Sox take their expected positions and the Yankees are #1 by a large margin.

The Phillies are still top 10 but they are more in the pack on Facebook (again a testament to the power of the Twitter Suggested Users list).

The Nationals’ last place position on Facebook and #29 ranking on Twitter gives them the smallest combined following.

Thanks Quy, looks like I inverted the 4 and the 6. I’ve updated both Facebook tables. The Rockies’ Facebook growth rate is now 306% instead of 322%, which drops them down one place. It also moves them down one place in the total likes table.

Thank you for the post Adam. As someone who played University baseball in the States, I can appreciate any post that touches on the game. It is interesting to see MLB jump on the technology spotlight as well. I am not surprised by the top four, seeing as they have had the most success, and the most media coverage over the last few years. Any conclusions on what Twitter coverage is doing for ticket sales or season ticket sales?